For the past two years, three researchers have tried to understand what ‘happiness’ looks like for residents of Kyrgyzstan, and particularly for LGBT and queer people in this Central Asian state, who regularly face rejection and violence.
The result of their work is A Book About Happiness: For Young (and not so) LGBT (and not only) People, which draws on interviews from members of LGBT communities in Kyrgyzstan, but also touches on broader topics: How has the idea of happiness changed in the post-Soviet space? What might happiness look like from a left-wing perspective? Why doesn’t the global positive thinking industry make people happier – wherever they are?
We talked to the authors – Nina Bagdasarova, Georgy Mamedov and Mohira Suyarkulova – about their new book, and why our understanding of happiness is intimately linked to our living conditions and communities.
